Trend Micro: Lack of security awareness reason for high number of cybercrime victims

Recent studies claim nearly 50 percent of adult Internet users have acquired a virus or had online accounts hacked at some point in time. And the reason for such a high number of cybercrime victims is simple: lack of awareness.

We are seeing there is a tremendous lack of understanding of how vulnerable we are to cybercriminals and what it means to be hacked. If you follow the news, we have seen several data breaches reported, but because they are happening so often, we are beginning to ignore the implications of cyber attacks. We need to understand that everyone who uses the Internet on any device is susceptible to becoming a victim of cybercrime.

There are several reasons why a lack of understanding of cyber security has enabled many people to become victims, which include:

Little generation-to-generation knowledge sharing

Most Gen X & Gen Y users had a rush of Internet-based technology thrown at them in the last 10 years and they haven’t had a chance to understand the security implications of this new technology. The next generation, Millennials, have taken to technology in a rapid fashion, and there was no mentorship from previous generations to teach Millennials about security.

Wrong assumptions about social network and email safety

For much of the Millennial generation, it comes as a surprise that social networks and email services are not a safe haven from cyber criminals who scam or try to take advantage of those who provide too much information openly.

Device vulnerability

Many of us do not realize that everyone and every device is susceptible to being hacked. To the Millennial generation, this news is especially shocking, because many are not aware of how vulnerable they all really are.

Lack of general awareness of public security vulnerabilities

Just like we need to protect ourselves from being a victim of street crime, we need to be aware of our surroundings from a cybersecurity perspective. Using unsecure public Wi-Fi connections in coffee shops and airports leave us vulnerable to attack by cybercriminals. In public, we can easily become victims of cyber pickpockets.

No future concerns after being hacked

Many of us think if our account is hacked, we can just change our password and all is well. However, we must take more proactive measures such as using security software to defend against hackers, ensuring we don’t have the same password for multiple accounts and being cautious of what we share online.

The most difficult thing to understand is not everyone online is righteous. If we all take a few precautions, we can ensure positive online experiences without becoming a cybercrime victim.